derry township school district absentee hotline

It bothers Hall not to know about decisions county commissioners are making with taxpayer money and she misses the legal notices the paper published informing residents about developments like utility rate increases. “We have no other substantial way of communicating.” “We’re in a unique situation because our community is unique,” she said. Cell and internet service is inconsistent - or nonexistent - and there are no locally-based radio or television stations. The 535-square-mile (1,385-square-kilometer) county is dominated by rugged mountain terrain, where residents live miles apart in hollers connected by winding roads and no interstate access, leaving people isolated.

But for communities like hers, it’s detrimental. Sarah Hall, the first Black prosecutor elected in McDowell County in the 1980s, said it’s tragic when any community loses its newspaper. Many said they didn’t realize how much they depended on the paper until it was gone. The people most impacted tend to be older, low-income and less likely to have graduated high school or college than people living in well-covered communities.įor McDowell residents, the news was still a shock. The decline of American newspapers is well-documented. At 97, he was born three years after it opened its doors in 1923. He’s worried about the county history the newspaper chronicled throughout his life. Sitting on a rocking chair in pajama pants in his ranch house at the base of lush, green hills, Wade said he hasn’t read any news since the paper stopped printing. “It was like a heartbeat, like a thread that ran through the community,” said World War II veteran Howard Wade, a retired professor specializing in Black history. And there is no one to keep disinformation in check, like when the newspaper published a series of stories that dispelled the rumors of election tampering at local precincts during last year’s May primaries. Local crises, like the desperately needed upgrade of water and sewer systems, are going unreported. The paper printed pages of religious events and directories every week and that hasn’t been replaced. Even basic tasks, like finding out about church happenings, have become challenging. Residents suddenly have no way of knowing what’s going on at public meetings, which are not televised, nor are minutes or recordings posted online. newspapers that have shuttered since 2005, a crisis Nester called “terrifying for democracy” and one that disproportionately impacts rural Americans like her. In March, the McDowell County weekly became another one of the thousands of U.S.

Derry township school district absentee hotline